One Woman’s Island – in Bahrain!!!

…my pal Susan Toy‘s collecting photos of her book from locations around the planet… let”s help her build her catalogue !

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing

It’s lovely, and somehow very fitting, to receive the first photo in the Where/Who in the World is Reading One Woman’s Island??? from none other than the great Seumas Gallacher – the author, reader, blogger, singer, supporter, pal, Billy Connolly-loving, Glaswegian-speaking, kilt-wearing Scotsman who now happens to live in Abu Dhabi!

Here he stands with my eBook cover visible on his eReader …

Says Seumas: From one island to another .. . from the shores of Bahrain to those of Bequia… Master Gallacher… proud owner of his Kindle copy of m’Lady, Susan’s masterpiece! Cheeeeeeeers 🙂

Thank you, Seumas!

Seumas has been a guest over at my other blog, Reading Recommendations, several times now. Head on over there to see what he’s been writing and publishing. I’ve read every book That Man has created and I tell you truthfully I’ve immensely enjoyed reading every single one!

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GoReadMe! Campaign – Susan M. Toy’s books

…here we go  with this month’s GoReadMe! Campaign, featuring the terrific novels of Susan M. Toy… I’ve just finished reading Susan’s latest, ‘One Woman’s Island’, and enjoyed that immensely, so if yeez wanna be part of this worthy campaign, why not pledge to read one or more of m’Lady, Susan’s masterpieces… thanks for yer support … see yeez later…LUV YEEZ! 

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing

In August this year, I had a great idea … and the very kind Seumas Gallacher allowed me space on his blog to not only write about the GoReadMe! Campaign, but also offered to be the first to have his books promoted using it.

He’s a brave man! While we may not have reached the target of readers we wished to attract within the time period we allowed, there were a fair number of new readers who discovered Gallacher’s books through this promotion, so I was pleased with the response.

I’m back now to do the same for my own writing, since I recently published a new novel in the Bequia Perspectives series. Here’s the background to the idea:

First, let’s go back a little way in time to a blog post I published in March of this year on the perennial subject that’s of interest to all authors…

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…eeeee-easy does it… Susan M. Toy spells out the ‘print versus eBooks’ issue…

…my dear pal, Authoress, Susan Toy knows what she’s talking about when it comes to books… she’s seen the business from several angles, including selling ‘em, promoting ‘em, writing ‘em, and blogging about ‘em… her Guest Post today blows away a few urban myths about the expected longevity both of print and eBooks…

Not so fast, Print-Lovers!

By Susan M. Toy

Thanks to Seumas Gallacher for agreeing to host me, once again, by posting this rant guest post on a topic that has me particularly steamed … or fried, actually.

Last evening, when I began making dinner, I asked Dennis if he thought I should slice the potatoes into rounds instead of the usual sticks to make fries, just for a change. (Belgian Fries, actually, since I’m half-Belgian.)

He made a face – really! – and said, “But then they won’t be fries!”

“But they’ll still be potatoes I’m frying, just in a different shape.”

He shrugged and went outside, glass of R&C in hand, to watch the sun set.

After we’d finished dinner, Dennis said, “Hey, those fries were really good. Just like real fries.”

My eyes rolled up to look at the ceiling and I shook my head.

I relate this anecdote here now, because it’s not unlike the arguments print-only lovers make when commenting disparagingly about eBooks and other new formats of books. “I will only read print; I will never read eBooks. I just don’t like eBooks.”

And it’s this attitude, and the glee with which these print-only lovers exclaim the “imminent death” of everything “E” that has been spread lately throughout the media and on social networks that really have me fired up! First of all, what these people don’t realize is that current reports and articles are mainly erroneous and the information is manipulative to make readers believe that not only are fewer eBooks being sold, but that print sales are on an upsurge.

Far from actually “dying”, eBooks are enjoying healthier sales than ever right now, and people in greater numbers (especially in my age demographic of Baby Boomers) are turning to eReading in even greater numbers than before. Many Thought Tablet Would Kill Ereader http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Many-Thought-Tablet-Would-Kill-Ereader-Why-Didnt-Happen/1013638

I discovered an interesting and informative author-blog last week in which some of what has been happening in the publishing business is explained. Gene Doucette points out that most of the declarations of the death of eBooks is coming from the Big5 publishers – who have their own interests in mind: The Collective Madness of the Publishing Industry http://genedoucette.me/2016/02/the-collective-madness-of-the-publishing-industry/ It’s very important to read articles such as this to understand how the business is being skewed in favour of the publishers.

Here are more current articles to read: The Nook’s Weird Death March http://genedoucette.me/2016/03/the-nooks-weird-death-march/

Barne’s & Noble Nukes the Nook http://diginomica.com/2016/03/07/bn-nukes-the-nook-with-a-15-march-deadline-for-customers-to-save-their-content/

How Apple and Big Publishers pushed eBooks toward failure http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-07/how-apple-and-big-publishers-pushed-e-books-toward-failure

Please be sure to read these articles, because they go a long way to explain why I say all these declarations of death of the eBook are downright false! To paraphrase Mark Twain, “the reports of eBook death are greatly exaggerated.”

If anything, there’s a shift away from the original eReaders (Kindle, KOBO, NOOK) as more ways of reading eBooks become available, through tablets, apps, on your computer or phone. If anything is dying, it’s those original eReaders! (Although my Kindle Paperwhite is now 4 years old and still ticking.)

But that’s not the part of all this that has me steamed. What I resent – and resent mainly as an author who has published in both print and eBook – is that print-only proponents believe everyone should be satisfied with reading print only – because that’s the way they choose to read – and that they also express a great deal of satisfaction in this so-called “death” of eBooks.

I have always believed that we, as authors and publishers, should make our books available in as many formats as possible – because we want to get those books into as many readers’ hands as possible! We should be catering to EVERY reader, whether they prefer print, eBook, or even audio (if we can afford to produce that format) in order to reach as many eyes as we can, throughout the world. I draw the line at scrolls hand-printed by monks, however. That’s just not practical any longer – there’s a scarcity of trained monks these days.

To downplay one format in favour of another does a terrible disservice to AUTHORS, as well as READERS! Authors have a right to find and attract the largest audience possible. What a shame it would be if an author were to write a terrific book that was only published in print and unavailable outside of their home country (because of restrictions on publishing rights – a whole different topic) or limited to their local area due to excessive shipping costs.

I wrote about the opportunity to move from being a local author to one with a global reach in an earlier guest post for Seumas: From Local to Global: eBooks – promoting Authors to International Status https://seumasgallacher.com/2014/11/28/dear-friend-authoress-susan-m-toy-a-giantess-in-promoting-the-rest-of-we-quill-scrapers/

As I say at the end of this post … “eBooks have allowed me the opportunity to become an author with an international following – something that never would have happened in a million years of print publishing!”

So, if you are one of those who espouse print – Good for you! And at least you are still reading. But please don’t think you are reading books in a “better” way than those who choose to read eBooks. Or that you should be cheering the demise of another format. Because what you are actually doing is denying READING! Denying the right to access books and reading in other formats – just because you yourself “prefer” reading books in print.

I, personally, am ambidextrous when it comes to reading formats: sometimes I read print (because I own so many print books), sometimes I read eBooks I’ve downloaded to my Kindle. I also read eBooks borrowed from the library on an Overdrive app. And I read PDFs sent to me by authors and friends. I do all my own writing directly to my computer and create Word docs and PDFs from that, which I’m now accustomed to editing directly on the computer. At the moment, I’m reading two print books, an eBook on my Kindle, I’m waiting for a hold to come in at the library, and I’m editing a Word Doc. I have at times listened to audio books, but find my mind wanders, so it’s not my favourite format. It’s great though for taking notes, as though I’m in a lecture, when I listen to non-fiction. But I would never consider denying anyone else access to audio just because I don’t enjoy “reading” books in that manner.

How about if we stop fighting over preferred formats, or considering that our choice is somehow better than others? How about if we start thinking about the authors and the readers, and helping to bring the two groups together in whatever way we can – by encouraging the creation, sales, distribution, and easy access of ALL formats of books … the formats in which readers choose to read these books.

Quite frankly, if any one of these formats were to die because another became dominant, we would all lose – Authors AND Readers! We should be encouraging innovation, not standing still, firmly entrenched in the last century. I doubt we’ve seen the final evolution of books and reading, and I for one cheer, “Bring it on! Let’s see what you’ve got that encourages readers to want to read even more books!”

And I just bet that the very next time I make fries, Dennis will ask for them to be cut into rounds instead of sticks.

…thanks for another terrific post, m’Lady, Susan… for all yeez Lads and Lassies of Blog Land, yeez can catch up with Susan here :

Susan M. Toy

www.susanmtoy.com
My main blog:
Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing, And, for good measure, a bit of Cooking and Eating
A blog dedicated to promoting other authors and their books:
Reading Recommendations 

And a blog offering honest reviews of those authors’ books:

reading recommendations reviewed

…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

About Reading Recommendations Reviewed

Source: About Reading Recommendations Reviewed

…my great friend, Susan M. Toy, among many of the things she is involved in, has a Reading Recommendations blog page, in which she tirelessly devotes her time to helping other authors (she writes herself, too, and no mean Authoress, she)… now she’s just getting up to speed with an added initiative.. a Reviewers Blog Page for readers who post honest reviews on the books carried on the original Reading Recommendations page… so if any of yeez Lads and Lassies of Blog Land wanna go that wee step further by reviewing any of her featured authors (including yours truly, Master Gallacher), there’s a welcome waiting for yeez … cheers:)  see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

…gazillion kudos to the wunnerful Susan M.Toy…

…apart from the obvious pleasure of being mentioned in such glorious authorship company in the re-blogged post below, I applaud the sentiments of m’Ladies Violet Gaspe and Cheryl Schenk in recognition of the fabulously selfless work m’Lady, Susan M. Toy continues to do constantly on behalf of many of we scribblers… gazillion thanks, all three ladies, and everyone else who supports all of us through Susan’s wonderful Reading Recommendations blog… mwaah 🙂 …here’s the post:

READING RECOMMENDATIONS 2nd ANNIVERSARY CONGRATULATIONS FROM TWO READERS!

By islandeditions on November 17, 2015

Violet Gaspe and Cheryl Schenk are two of the reasons Reading Recommendations still exists after two years of operation. It’s because of dedicated READERS like these women that I continue to promote and recommend books and their authors. They not only subscribe to the blog, but read the posts and find many of their next-great-reads on the site – and they pay attention when I recommend a book, even those by authors I’m not actually promoting on the site! Plus they talk about the books and authors they discover on RR with their friends and other readers. This site would not be what it is today without READERS like Violet and Cheryl who actually read and enjoy the books I promote there. Here they are to tell you what the site means to them …

From Violet Gaspe …
Congratulations Reading Recommendations Year Two!

This milestone is achieved through the dedicated effort of my old friend Sue. I have known Sue for over thirty years; back to the days when she held home parties to promote books and writers. Sue now has a much broader audience through social media. She has introduced me to so many writers. Who would I begin to name? Who will I forget to mention? So, I decided to name the last six fiction writers I have read or am presently reading.

Tim Baker, Seumas Gallacher, Kent Haruf, Sue Monk Kidd, J.P. McLean and Diana Stevan (who was recommended by J.P. McLean). Some of the writers had me in tears (Haruf), some had me waking at dawn to continue the adventure (Stevan). I lost sleep trying to figure out what happens next (Baker, Gallacher, J.P. McLean). And there were books I didn’t want to end because I loved the story so much (Sue Monk Kidd). Writers unite, promote each other and continue letting readers such as myself discover your creativity.

Titles: The Gift: Penance; Ours Souls at Night; A Cry From the Deep; Secret Life of Bees; Eyewitness Blues; The Violin’s Man’s Legacy.

From Cheryl Shenck …
Congratulations Reading Recommendations on this, your 2nd Anniversary

Every writer needs a friend, someone that understands, promotes and enlightens. Someone that isn’t family and doesn’t necessarily LOVE everything we do, but will offer fair and creative criticism.

Susan Toy is that friend, and her creation of Reading Recommendations is invaluable to writers and readers alike. She is not only a kind-hearted soul, she is also a wealth of information and a continuously strong supporter of authors, both established and up and coming.

I was fortunate to meet Susan at a writers’ conference several years ago and from that time I have followed her on Facebook and Twitter, and I have since become addicted to her Reading Recommendations. Through her blogs I have been turned on to authors I feel privileged to have read and to books I am proud to promote as well.

I hope to follow these recommendations for a long time to come and maybe one day, if the Writing Gods are kind, will find myself featured as one of her authors.

The following are a few of my favourite writers (all of whom have been promoted through Reading Recommendations) and the books that got me started. If you haven’t read them, check them out. I think you’ll be pleasantly impressed with what you find.

Susan M Toy – Island in the Clouds (it had to be said)
Betty Jane Hegerat – The Boy
Kevin Brennan – Yesterday Road
Tim Baker – Living The Dream
Seumas Gallacher – Savage Payback
Chris Tucker – Lost Voyage
L G Pomerleau – Becoming Sand

Again, congratulations, Susan. I am happy to call you “friend”.

Cheryl Schenk can be contacted on Twitter @cherylschenk

Thank you to Violet and Cheryl! It’s READERS like you who are the reason we WRITE!

If you have discovered a new-to-you author through Reading Recommendations who then became a personal favourite, please share their name below in the comments section. I’d love to hear from READERS who have found this site to be helpful in recommending new reading selections. After all, that’s what this is all about, isn’t it? Spreading the word about Great Authors and their books!

 

…The Lady We All Know As Sue (with apologies to Robert W. Service)…

…my very dear friend, the indefatigable, Authoress, Susan Toy, runs a coupla blogs, one of which is entirely devoted to reviews and prompting other scribbling pals, all of whom have benefited from her inexhaustible plugs for our wee masterpieces… using her Reading Recommendations blog, this has been going on for almost two years, and the duo-anniversary is this coming November 18th… in honour of her labours, I’ve stolen (with accreditation) from the monumental Robert .W. Service’s famous poem, ’The Shooting of Dan McGrew’… enjoy…

From Seumas Gallacher, on celebrating the 2nd, Anniversary of Reading Recommendations!

By islandeditions on November 14, 2015

I didn’t expect anything less than brilliance when Seumas Gallacher offered to “pen a few lines” in celebration of the 2nd Anniversary for my other author-promotion blog, Reading Recommendations! Thank you, Seumas, for making us cry with laughter when I read the following “poem” aloud to Dennis while we sat on our Bequia verandah drinking coffee this morning.

You are THAT MAN! Luvs yah! Mwahhhhhh!!!

The Lady We All Know As Sue (with apologies to Robert W. Service)

A bunch of the boys were reading it up
In the Bequia book saloon,
The kid that handles the ol’ sales till
Was selling like a mad baboon.
Back of the store, with a Kindle Fire
Sat the lady that’s known as Sue.

When out of the night, which was thirty y’know,
And into the books stacked ceiling to floor
There stumbled a writer fresh from his Mac,
Dog-eared and looking for more.

He looked like a tramp with hardly a dime
And scarcely the price of a cup
Yet, he glanced at one novel, and reached out his hand
And gingerly he picked it up.
There was none could place the stranger’s face
With bookmarks hanging out of his shoe,
But we cleared him some space, and the last to clear
Was the lady known as Sue.

There are scribblers that somehow hold your gaze,
And grip so hard you can tell
That here was a lad, from wherever he came,
Had been to the Libr’y of Hell;
With kind of a squint, and the stare of a monk,
Whose hands had typed far too much
As he read through the book in a wee ingle-nook,
And his face would twitch just a touch.

Then I got wond’ring just who he might be,
And even what he might do,
And I turned my head—and there looking at him
Was the lady that’s known as Sue.

His eyes kept coming back to the tome.
The one he held in his mitt,
Till at last the dust on the fly-cover leaf
Cleared for all to decipher it.
And he started to read, the lines and the scan
Like nobody else could have done
With a drawl and a twang, my God, these words sang
In a voice that wavered and honed.

Were you ever listed in the Great Amazon
At the mercy of the wolves called ‘reviews’?
And you waited daily for word of your sales
Or heard it on Smashwords’ list news?
With only the hope of a turning of phrase
That delighted you first time you wrote?
–A half-dead zombie could breathe more than you,
When the two-star reviewer clawed at your throat.
That, my boys, that was the look
Flirting across this forlorn guy’s face
An author of sorts, respected by some,
Still searching for a bestseller place.

Then all of a sudden, that poor scribbler turned,
The eyes darting forth from the boy,
And his stare stopped dead in its tracks
At the lady we all know as ‘Toy’.
He held out his hand and offered the book,
With a whimper that came from the heart;
‘Please,’ he croaked, ‘a review from you,
Will give me that much-needed start.’

The room fell more quiet, and we all held our breath
Waiting to see what she’d say.
She skimmed through his book, for indeed it was his,
And observed him in a strange kind of way.
Then a smile crossed her face, and she nodded at him,
With the wisdom of someone who knew,
And the tears on his face retreated apace,
And smiled back at the lady called Sue.

‘Of course, I’ll give it a read, that man, said she,
And I’ll see about some commendations
And sooner or later, we all understood,
It’ll be on Recommendations.

So, lift a glass, or two, three or more,
For these coupla years now gone through,
And acknowledge the love and assistance we’ve had,
From the Lady we all know as Sue.

Seumas Gallacher
November 2015

Is that a kitten in your sporran or are you just happy to see me?

…the wonderful Susan Toy features this ol’ Jurassic again on her Reading Recommendations…

…the LUVLY authoress pal, Susan Toy gives me some kilt room on her READING RECOMMENDATIONS blog again…

Seumas Gallacher was first featured on Reading Recommendations in April 2014, and has been a true friend to the site … and to me!, ever since! Seumas not only reblogs his fellow authors’ promotions, but reads and reviews their books, has invited them to write guest blog posts, and has been a great pal to all of us ever since we first “met” online. I’m very pleased now to present Seumas Gallacher to you again on Reading Recommendations Revisited, because I have since read all his books and consider him to be a top-notch author who has the keen ability to tell a gripping tale. I highly recommend everything Seumas has written. Besides all that, he wears a kilt!

RRR: Since your first promotion on RR, what have you been doing?
SG: The fourth Jack Calder crime thriller, Killer City, was launched a couple of months ago, and its place in the Work-In-Progress slot has been taken over by the fifth in the series, Deadly Impasse. 

However, since last time m’Lady Susan allowed me space on her Reading Recommendations pages, the most significant development for my writing has been the arrival of the partnership with a publisher . . . yes, gasp!, a real live publishing house. The excellent partnership of Laurence and Stephanie Patterson of Crooked Cat Publishing, based in Edinburgh, have taken my work aboard. All previous three self-published titles have been re-launched under their imprint. Among several positive additions they bring to my scribbling efforts is the assignment of a professional editor, the superb, eagle-eyed Maureen Vincent-Northam.

RRR: What else have you been doing, outside of the writing?
SG: I suppose, the achievement of continued breathing is always to be applauded and welcomed. Apart from that, continued association with a marvelous band of kindred writing spirits in the Bahrain Writers Circle has been a source of great sharing pleasure.

Continued regular travel between Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in pursuit of my ‘day job’ of running my Management Advisory Services business adds more colour to my months.

RRR: Is there one marketing tip or trick you discovered while promoting your own books that worked particularly well and that you’d like to share with other authors?
SG: Not so much a tip or trick, more a truism for me is the constant attention to the social network activity which I highly recommend to the modern scribe – being ‘present’ in an engaged manner with the various constituents, such as readers, other writers, editors, and the publishing world at large.

RRR: Please recommend three other authors whose work you have “discovered” or rediscovered this past year whom every reader should consider reading.
SG: As part of my ‘paying it back’ and ‘paying it forward’ I regularly download books from other authors, particularly newbies, and if their content warrants a four-star or five-star-rated review, I publish those on Amazon . . . lower ratings than that, I do not publicly announce these, as I do not feel I have the right to diminish the efforts of any author, and rather would attempt to contact them directly with my opinion and an offer of suggestions for improvements. In the course of doing all of this, I encounter some excellent work. Among these, I highly recommend:

Carol Hedges—her Victorian crime novels are a delight to read. A mixture of dark deeds in the fog-swirled street of London with an uncanny wit make her a must-read author.

Alex Shaw—his insights on the background of the Ukrainian/Russian political intrigues are married cleverly with special agents’ involvement.

Ailsa Abraham—not my usual reading genre, but I was captivated from the start by the mystical nuances of Black Shamans and warrior monks in the yin and yang of seemingly opposing, mystical, spiritual and ‘religious’ provenances.

Thank you, Seumas!

…the thanks are due the other way round, m’Lady, Susan… ye’ve made a happy man very old, yet again!…

…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

…Susan Toy outlines 10 Ways to Kill Your Writing… PART ONE…

…I’m delighted to run a five-days consecutive series of posts from my terrific pal, Author, Susan Toy, for every author to enjoy and prob’ly learn lots from… here’s PART ONE :

10 Ways to Kill Your Writing

This 5-part article is from a talk I gave at the Calgary Public Library Writers’ Weekend Feb. 4, 2012.

Thanks to all of you for reading this series that is very kindly being hosted by the ONE, the ONLY, SEUMAS GALLACHER!

Part 1

Since you’re taking time to read this series, and if you promise to stick with me right to the end, you will receive a very special gift, because I’ve been asked to talk about . . . 10 Ways to Kill Your Writing . . . and for today only, your very special gift includes 3 bonus ways!

First watch this video . . . Inside the Writer’s Mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97TOQk4Cw5M&feature=player_embedded

 

1. Take yourself and your writing too seriously

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be serious about writing. If it’s more than a hobby for you, and you hope to eventually publish (which is why you are reading this, after all) then you should definitely be serious about your craft.

But you shouldn’t be obsessive about the process and about becoming a published writer.

That was me at one time, when I first began writing. I sent out manuscripts long before they were ready, pestered friends to read every new piece I wrote, kept an accurate count of the number of rejections I’d received – as though they were badges, testaments of how much I was suffering for the sake of my art, and I constantly complained to any sympathetic ear I could find, wondering when it would happen for me.

Then I suddenly let go. I stopped sending out those half-baked manuscripts, took writing classes, found editors to work with, stopped obsessing about getting published, and began enjoying the process of writing and telling a story.

Miraculously, my friends began speaking to me again, I was receiving encouragement from my instructors, editors, and fellow writers that my writing WOULD eventually be published. I entered and won a couple of contests and those stories were both published in a lit mag, giving me two publishing credits – BINGO! And, without realizing that all of this was happening, I had five novel manuscripts (one now published), three novellas (one published), one play, about fifteen short stories, and I had even begun writing poetry – not very good poetry, mind you, but a form of writing I hadn’t believed I would ever attempt.

I’ve spoken with far too many writers who say they’ve been working on the same novel for ten years or more and all they want to do is just get the damn thing published!

Hey! I understand, but it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you stop obsessing and consider the big picture. When you let go, and put that one manuscript on the back burner, allowing it simmer while you continue with other writing, you learn to enjoy the writing process.

There’s a famous story concerning John Fowles, about when he tried to find someone to publish his first novel. He was successful, and after the book’s release his publisher asked, “Now, do you have anything else we might be interested in publishing?” Fowles hauled out seven more manuscripts.

Be like John Fowles. Publishers love to discover new writers who prove to be more than just a one-hit wonder.

Besides, there’s nothing more recognizable, or off-putting, to a publisher than desperation or neediness. They can smell both a mile away! Be professional, enjoy your craft, and don’t obsess!

2. Miss opportunities by not taking chances

If you’re writing then you are a writer. Don’t think that because you have never published anything yet that you shouldn’t enter contests or make an appointment to speak with a writer-in-residence, attend writing conferences, and take in all of the sessions offered for writers – sessions like those offered on a regular basis by writing associations, libraries, book organizations. Subscribe to writing blogs, especially those that offer writing advice, links to writing contests, and writing prompts/exercises.

Do not discount the opportunity that all these possibilities offer for you to be able to “network,” to get your work out there, to become known as a writer and for your writing.

Recently, four of the writers-in-residence from the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program came together for a reading, and during their discussion every one of them said they had worked with several writers whose work was outstanding. Check your local writing scene and organizations to find out about writers-in-residence who may be available to you for consultation. This is a very valuable service being offered. In Calgary, we were so fortunate to have a number of writer-in-residencies – Calgary Public Library, University of Calgary, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, the Alexandra Writers’ Centre. And they are all free! You receive free advice from established authors. And you are allowed to sign up for every one of them.

(I’m going to add here that, as far as I know there are no “virtual” writers-in-residence available to consult writers on their work. If you do know of an opportunity like this, please add a link in the comments. Otherwise, perhaps this is a service that could be pursued by an organization, if there is funding available to pay the WIR.)

There are also many opportunities for receiving writing instruction that don’t involve enrolling in a Master’s degree. There are continuing ed. courses available at many colleges and universities around the world, online as well as in-classroom. A quick google search will find you any number of these courses. It’s well worth it to check out the opportunities.

While you’re at it, research writing organizations in your country or city or within the genre you write. Become a member. By doing so, you’ll also join a great community of writers. You’ll become a member of a “tribe” that includes other people just like you. And you will learn from this association.

And, while I’m at it, renew your library card! Did you know that most libraries provide many programs for writers? Especially those located in major centres. Check out the library for more than just books to read.

Attend readings, attend festivals, listen to authors read their work, buy their books, talk with them about their work. I can assure you that most authors LOVE talking with their readers. I was a witness when one very established author burst into tears after a reader simply said to her, “Please keep writing!” These are the best words any author can ever hope to hear.

Take advantage of as many of these opportunities as you can! But do stop short of stalking authors. That’s just creepy!

Susan Toy has been a bookseller, an award-winning publishing sales representative, a literacy teacher, and is now a published author, publisher, and promoter of fellow authors and their books. Born and raised in Toronto, and after completing a degree in English Literature at Queen’s University in Kingston, she moved to Calgary in the late 70s and immediately found a job in a bookstore, beginning what has become a life’s career working with books and their authors.

Link for Island in the Clouds: https://islandeditions.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/where-in-the-world-can-you-purchase-island-in-the-clouds/

Link for That Last Summer:

https://islandeditions.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/where-to-purchase-islandshorts-ebooks3.pdf

…yeez can catch some of m’Lady, Susan’s WURK and links here :

www.susanmtoy.com

Blog: http://islandeditions.wordpress.com/
And a blog dedicated to promoting other authors and their books
Reading Recommendations 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!… 

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

 

 

 

 

…look what my great pal, Susan Toy, has produced for the SAVAGE PAYBACK re-launch… what a Lady!

…my, my, my, Mabel… super Lady, Susan Toy, Author of the terrific ‘Island in the Clouds’, has taken my breath away today with this unexpected You Tube clip about the re-launch by Crooked Cat Publishing for my Jack Calder crime thriller masterpiece, SAVAGE PAYBACK… just have a wee peek at this :

…I’ve said it so many times before and this underscores it… the fabulous Diaspora that constitutes the global quill-scapers family is simply THE BEST…

…tomorrow, January 27th, is the re-launch date, and here’s where it’s appearing on the Great God Amazon links…see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

UK amzn.to/1CHhw01

US amzn.to/15zUsD9

Canada amzn.to/1yXWRli

Australia bit.ly/1yGJ5ok

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

Best Bloggers Blogging … according to me!

…honoured is too weak a WURD to describe how it feels to be included in this list… thanks gazillions, m’Lady, Susan… this will be broadcast immediately to all points of the Bloggers Realm!!! 🙂 mwaaah 🙂

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE/RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing

I’ve already given you a wrap-up of the best books I read in 2014. As well as being a reader and an author, I’m also a blogger who promotes other authors and doles out advice and information on all manner interesting areas, to me and my readers. Throughout this past year I have become “acquainted” with other like-minded bloggers (some of whom are also authors), have followed and read their blogs, commented on them, and reblogged their posts a number of times. Some of these bloggers came to my attention in the first place, because they offered to read and review my books or gave me promotion by way of an interview or guest post on their blogs. In turn, I met a number of other bloggers through that first set – people who commented on those posts about me or who won a copy of my book through…

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